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Show County assessor calls off reappraisal because city won't pick up the tab by Christopher Smart Summit County Assessor Leo Frazier has called off plans to reappraise Park City commercial and residential property because the city council has balked at picking up the tab. Frazier said neither the city nor the county has budgeted for the $260,000 reappraisal. "Since the council is against it," Frazier said, "I just decided to call it off." Frazier's statements were in response to a letter from Mayor Jack Green dated Dec. 7. Green said Park City would not help pay for a city-wide property appraisal, as proposed by the county assessor, because the city council believes inequalities in valuations and taxes are a problem throughout the county. In his letter (see text on page A5), Green conceded that "inadequacy of detailed property information necessary neces-sary to maintain proper assessment valuations is a very real problem." He cited some 380 successful property tax appeals made by Park City property owners, most of whom are absentee Deer Valley property owners. However, Green maintains the problem exists county-wide. He told Frazier that the results of a reappraisal would not necessarily raise the total assessed valuation within Park City, but any property that is re-appraised at a higher value will be paying a "disproportionate share" of taxes compared with taxpayers in other parts of Summit County. According to Green, it isn't logical to split existing taxing districts by reappraising only the Park City portion of the school district and fire district. "That would make taxes paid to the school district particularly inequitable for properties within the city given the fact that the school district represents 60 percent of the taxpayer's bill," he said. But Frazier maintains property valuation inequities exist in Park City rather than the county as a whole. He said that information gathered from sales ratio studies indicate that the county does not need reappraisal. Frazier had asked the individual taxing districts in Park City to pay for the reappraisal. The school district's share of the bill would be $156,000. The city would be responsible for a $65,000. A bill of $18,000 would go to the fire district and the county would pick up the remaining $26,000. But Green said the city is not going to pay for the reappraisal. He noted that the county can reappraise the city but can't force the municipality to pick up the tab. According to City Councilman Bob Wells, a reappraisal of Park City property would increase the tax burden on residents by about 20 percent, but would decrease the tax bill on an average absentee owner's Deer Valley condominium by about 10 percent. Wells bases his tax figures on a random sampling of Park City properties. According to his sampling, sam-pling, Old Town and new developments develop-ments have roughly equivalent valuations when each is compared with its particular market value. |
